Muse's "The Wow! Signal" entered the Australian albums chart at number two this week, its first week on the ARIA chart. Olivia Rodrigo's "you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love" held on to number one for a third straight week, on the chart the Australian Recording Industry Association published 10 July for the week of 6 July.
The album is Muse's tenth studio record since the English band formed in Teignmouth, Devon, in 1994, a run that has brought two Grammy Awards for best rock album. Frontman Matt Bellamy produced this one with Dan Lancaster and Aleks von Korff rather than with the full band, a first for the group, and it was released 26 June through Warner Records and Helium-3. The same week it landed at number two in Australia, "The Wow! Signal" topped the UK albums chart and reached number one in Austria, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Reviews have split. Metacritic has the album at 67 out of 100 from twelve critic reviews, a generally favourable rating on its scale. The Guardian gave it four stars out of five, calling it "preposterous" but crediting its commitment, while Pitchfork scored it 4.5 out of 10 and wrote it was "too sincere to have fun and too obnoxious to take seriously."
Rodrigo's hold at number one is on her third studio album, released 12 June through Geffen Records. It has now reached number one in 22 countries, including the US Billboard 200 and the UK albums chart. Its lead single, "Drop Dead," debuted atop the US Billboard Hot 100, making Rodrigo the first artist to send the lead single from each of her first three albums straight to number one there.
Muse was not the only guitar band to break into the top 10 this week. The Pretty Reckless, the New York band fronted by Taylor Momsen, debuted at number seven with "Dear God," its fifth studio album, also released 26 June. Everywhere else in the top 10, from Rodrigo down through Olivia Dean, Noah Kahan, Drake, Ella Langley, Alex Warren, a film soundtrack and BTS, is pop, hip-hop, country or streaming-driven, the mix that has held the top of the ARIA albums chart most of this year.
Dean's "The Art of Loving" slipped to third in its 40th week on the chart. Kahan's "The Great Divide" and Drake's "ICEMAN" each fell a place, to fourth and fifth, and Langley's "Dandelion" held at six. Warren's "You'll Be Alright, Kid" climbed to eight in its 70th week on the chart, the "KPop Demon Hunters" soundtrack dropped one place to nine, and BTS's "ARIRANG" rose from seven to ten.
Muse's tour behind the album started in North America this month, with a European arena run booked from November. Neither leg has an Australian date on it yet.
